Ideas !!!

For me, watching TED talks on youtube has always been fun and fascinating. This Sunday, (19^th Jan 2014), BITS Pilani Goa organized TEDxBITSGoa - an independently organized TED event. The organizers sent a special invite to the Toastmasters International, and I being a part of this wonderful organization, grabbed the opportunity.

Now, Toastmasters International has a structured and thoughtful program which focuses on various aspects of communication skills. These aspects of communication are much beyond Grammar and Vocabularies. There is purpose, body language, vocal variety, costumes, research, and use of visual aids, persuasion and inspiration. But hungry for learning more that we toastmasters are, especially when it comes to communication skills and public speaking, we toastmasters saw this TEDxBITSGoa as one BIG opportunity for us to do so. And so, a contingent of 24 toastmasters set off to this event held at the beautiful campus in Vasco, Goa.

Right from the moment I got up this morning, I began to think like a toastmaster. “Oh I will get to learn a lot from these experts of their respective fields”, “I will get to learn how they face the crowd, maintain eye-contact, deliver their speeches, how they use the space, how they dress……”.

When I saw myself in the mirror, I remembered a few tips from our manuals. We should look presentable. Oh, I had to be clean shaven. I should gel my hair. When I opened my wardrobe, a few more thoughts darted- Should I wear formals? Should I wear a blazer and a tie? Since I didn’t really have enough time to groom myself with the formals- I reluctantly decided on a semi-formal outfit, and praying I wouldn’t be the odd one out amongst the other toastmasters.

The event started, the speakers came and they delivered. As they delivered, they all had one big lesson to teach for the toastmaster in me. None of the speakers were wearing a tie with a diamond tie-pin, an Armani suit or black leather shoes for that matter. Some of the speakers were not clean shaven, some wore casuals, and some had average vocabularies like me. But, yet they made the toastmaster in me and also the human being in me, feel proud about. What made them special were the ideas that they shared. What they talked about stood far higher than how they talked, how they looked or how they moved. One speaker spoke about innovative computer software to help autistic people, while other spoke about starting an NGO which helped spread education with fun to the school students. While one spoke about publishing books for the disabled, another speaker talked about working on a project which converts vocal sounds to Braille notations, to help the blind learn how to read! There was a music composer who did not give up in his struggling days and then there was a lady who gave up her lucrative job to go back to her home town Jammu and start a school for the local village kids who were deprived of education.

These speakers have brilliant ideas. They have touched lives. They teach us that there are two ways in life- one way and the other damn way. These speakers have dared to go the other way. This is the biggest lesson learnt after listening to all these speakers. The real soul of our speeches is the content. Our ideas and actions supersede everything at the end of the day. It’s what we do that matters. Yes, communication is very important. Public speaking is very more important. But even greater is the idea that you want to communicate. And just not communicate, but also execute.

This by no means writes communication off. Without communicating, how would you let the world know your idea or what you are doing? But this only reaffirms the significant of content of our speeches. Even for the toastmasters contests, content has the highest weightage.

For all the toastmasters and aspiring toastmasters, this is a reminder that, while you work on the speech objectives, do not forget to also work on the content. This is one objective which is not mentioned, but is in fact the soul of your speech!